


terrible cats, terrific romance

by kenmagoesblep



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Crack, Extensive Use of Memes, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Haikyuu!! Secret Santa 2018, Humor, M/M, Social Media, hqss2018, rated t for cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 10:55:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17160713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenmagoesblep/pseuds/kenmagoesblep
Summary: The Bad Cat Doodles twitter account could be modded by anyone, really, even an alien, and he’d still like it. It was, by far, his favorite twitter account to boot, his friends couldn’t compare (sorry, Kuroo). But it just happened to be run by the most good looking man Bokuto had seen in a while.--written for #hqss2018 as a gift to @irani-owl





	terrible cats, terrific romance

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone!!!!!!! its me again, local bokuaka loser KLHSLGHSL  
> its a delight to be here, really lkdhgsdlkghglkds i love writing bokuaka so much, i have a bunch of ideas i wanna work on, and i'm glad i got to write dani's fic this secret santa. we have many of the same tastes fanfiction-wise klgshglksdhgsdlgs it still had its challenges, though. either way, i hope she likes it!!!!!!  
> i hope everyone is having a good time this december, regardless if you celebrate christmas or any other religious holiday!

Bokuto Koutarou knew fully well he was a gay mess, sure, but didn’t expect himself to fall that easily — especially based on so, so little.

 

There’s a lot of pretty people in social media. Uncanny amounts, even, and lots of catfishing. Bokuto is no fool. Not in that sense, at the very least. So he probably wouldn’t have paid any attention to this one guy if it was _only_ because of his looks, no no. He didn’t even start following him for his looks or for his personal life at all — it was for his amazing sense of humor.

 

The Bad Cat Doodles twitter account could be modded by anyone, really, even an alien, and he’d still like it. It was, by far, his favorite twitter account to boot, his friends couldn’t compare (sorry, Kuroo). He didn’t even know he liked cats as much until finding this godtier doodle account based on the best cat pictures on the internet and getting a taste to the utter joy of laughing at silly felines.

 

“Bro, check this one out!” Bokuto handed his phone to Kuroo for what could be the millionth time that evening, wheezing violently. He could die for Kot Blini and the cute little face it does next to various amounts of food.

 

Kuroo wasn’t particularly amused.

 

“Good stuff,” he nonchalantly said, standing real close to their mirror in an attempt to better apply eyeliner. “Now, can you _please_ stop scrolling through twitter and go get your ass dressed? We’re already late as it is.”

 

“Wow, hakuna your tatas, dude.” he frowned as he walked towards his wardrobe. Not before taking a picture of Kuroo’s cat, Oreo, sitting like a human on Kuroo’s bed, of course. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

 

Many times, his conversations with Kuroo regarding memes ended like this, but it wasn’t a real bother. Kuroo knew how to properly appreciate Bokuto’s memes and didn’t roll his eyes on purpose, but sometimes Bokuto’s obsessive behaviour could get a bit out of hand. Bokuto was the type of guy that would find a song he really likes and hear it until he couldn’t stand it anymore, order the same burger at McDonalds after spending minutes considering ordering a different one every single time, watch the same anime series or movies billions of times, etc etc. It was how he lived his life to that point and would continue to do so. And he was no different with his memes, obviously. Why would anyone let their favorite memes die?

 

He already loved the bad cat doodles mod before, but Bokuto got completely hooked once the mod revealed his face to the public on an April Fools joke. For a single day, he startled everyone by changing his entire account’s motif — from icon to username, his account was a Bad Human Doodles account, where he only drew the most terrible pictures of him and his friends.

 

_And he was the most good looking man Bokuto had seen in a while._

 

Bad cat dude couldn’t look bad in a picture, even if he tried. And he obviously tried —  some of the pictures he posted were purposely bad, taken like he was a grandpa, all triple chins and awkward angles — but he was just… _too much_. He had a flawless, almost ethereal face, perfect skin, and stylish-messy curly black hair.

 

Squidward’s iconic _“Oh no, he’s hot!”_ line echoed in Bokuto’s head as he dashed to this guy’s DMs to start sending doodle requests, heart pumping in his chest. Hopefully starting a friendship. Maybe dating in the future. Sharing a nice house in the Tokyo suburbs. Having kids at some point.

 

Bokuto knew it was a mostly unfounded infatuation at that point. He didn’t know this dude’s name, age, or anything about his personality other than his art skills, his fondness towards cats (not only from his account, but from the numerous bad selfies he had with so many different cats) and delightful sense of humor. He couldn’t even tell if bad cat dude was single, much less attracted to other guys. Bokuto doubted a straight dude would spend so much time doodling cats, but hey, who was he to judge?

 

None of that stopped him from falling hard for bad cat guy. All he had to do to solve all his questions was talking to them, simple as that.

 

And that was something Bokuto could do — armed with incredible amounts of weird pictures of both Oreo and Buttercup, absolutely no shame and conversation topics in spades, he’d get to know everything he could about this guy. Starting by getting his personal account, if possible.

 

**owl no banana**

[picture]

hey hey hey!!!

may i offer you (an egg) this cat in this trying time?

((hope ur not going through trying times tho))

 

“Dude, what the hell,” Kuroo squinted at him after getting the flash of Bokuto’s phone camera right in his eyes, seemingly unaware he was also very clearly in this picture. Buttercup and him were laying down in an extremely similar pose to The Creation of Adam and bad cat guy would certainly approve. “Why have you been taking so many pictures of my girls?”

 

“Sorry for the flash, my dude,” Bokuto beamed at him, making himself comfortable in Kuroo’s bed and using him as a pillow. “And do I need a reason to appreciate them?” he scratched Buttercup’s chin as he did, earning a soft purr in response.

 

“Yeah, sure. It totally _isn’t_ to spam Bad Cat Doodles.”

 

“W-W-What sort of image to you have of me?! I’m not this lame, I can be lowkey!”

 

“Hah! I knew it!” Kuroo jabbed at his stomach, making him jump. “You’re totally spamming Bad Cat Doodles! You ain’t slick!”

 

“Oh, fuck off, you-” Bokuto was about to start a fistfight when his phone vibrated on the bed, a Twitter DM popping up in his screen. He loudly gasped, sitting up and taking the phone in his hands. “It’s him!”

 

**Bad Cat Doodles**

I really appreciate this cat, thank u sm!

It has very refined aesthetic

Not all cats appreciate the good ol renaissance

Pls pet it on my behalf

((and i’m doing good, thnks for caring! Hbu?))

 

Bokuto fistpumped several times while staring at his phone screen, exploding in pure glee. Then, he dramatically laid down again, his head falling heavily on Kuroo’s stomach, earning an exasperated ‘Oof!’ from his best friend. They both remained silent for several seconds until Bokuto heaved a heavy, infatuated sigh.

 

“You’re an idiot,” Kuroo chuckled under his breath, closing his eyes and nodding negatively. “You don’t even know this guy’s name, Bo.”

 

“You don’t have all the facts,” Bokuto stated, smiling even wider. Kuroo already knew what was about to come, reciting it with him: “I love him.”

 

“Big F for you, dude. Nothing can save you now.”

 

“He’s so _hot_ and _talented_ , Kuroo… How could I _not_ fall for him?”

 

“Do you fall for every mildly good looking music major in our campus?”

 

“I mean… Konoha’s pretty good looking…”

 

 _“Oh my God! Bokuto!”_ Kuroo cackled loud on his ear, contorting under him. It scared Buttercup away and earned a very judgemental, sleepy look from Oreo. “And you have the nerve to tell me I’m a gay mess!”

 

“When did _me_ being a mess exclude _you_ from being a mess too?!” Bokuto didn’t hesitate on punching his gut this time, efficiently starting a (playful) fistfight. “Do you think I forgot about your crush on blond boy from archeology? _‘Oh, bro, he’s sooo-’_ ”

 

“No! Stop!” Kuroo cut him off by shoving a pillow to his face, definitely red all over his face from how high his voice went. Bokuto responded by making kissy noises at him, that sure made Kuroo laugh, but also got him kicking around like a little kid, eventually lending a blow on Bokuto’s rib.

 

Conversation ended there and they remained silent for an hour, while Kuroo didn’t stop being an ass and apologized. Oreo was kind enough to lay on Bokuto’s stomach while he sulked on his bed, though. Nice cat. Nicer than the owner.

 

Until Kuroo decided to go get something to eat at a nearby convenience store, offering to buy him something in exchange for him never mentioning his crush again. Bokuto agreed with fingers crossed behind his back, because he intended on matchmaking the two of them at some point, when he could get his hands on blond boy’s name. Kuroo didn’t need to know that.

 

There were some cats on the way to Lawson, that Bokuto seriously considered sending to bad cat guy, but was sad to see that his last tweet announced requests were closed.

 

“Thanks everyone for all your cats, I’ll be opening for requests again once I’m done with these”, it read. Did he flood bad cat guy too much? Did he accidentally annoy him? Did bad cat guy start _hating him_ for sending so many cat pictures? Nothing really pointed towards that direction, but that was Bokuto’s conclusion, breaking his heart before he even had the chance to do something about his feelings. Conversation was open there for him, sure — requests were closed, but his DMs remained open, and they had a small chatter going on — but he lost all courage to keep talking.

 

Kuroo was right on that, even if he hated it. Getting his hopes up with a stranger on twitter was a dumb move.

 

At least, until Bad Cat Doodles started updating again a week later. The pictures and the amazingly bad doodles of Buttercup, Oreo and Bokuto himself sprinkled his timeline, with nice, funny comments on top. Nicer comments than the other cats, he was sure of it.

 

Bad Cat guy posted most of them, as far as he can remember. The one of Oreo sitting like a person, Buttercup sleeping with her eyes open, that one he got of Buttercup mid sneeze… Bokuto’s heart almost flew out of his chest from beating so fast, filled with soft and warm feelings. Love was real and strong, guys. He was sure of it this time around.

 

And there was also the Creation of Adam one, that… was anything but the titular “Bad Cat Doodles” the Twitter account set itself to do. Sure, it was pretty much unrefined — Bokuto was no arts expert, but he figured this probably was made with nothing but a pen, in a very “ride or die” way — and it looked goofy and hilarious, just like the rest of them do, but… there was still so much detail to it, and it looked so, _so cool_ . Kuroo Tetsurou, in all his bedhead, indecent anime t-shirt, drooling glory looked _cool_ on that piece of paper. And there were so many different cats around Buttercup that Bokuto couldn’t even count. There was so much thought and care put into that that Bokuto lowkey wanted to cry.

 

That man was the man of his dreams. Bokuto needed his number.

 

**owl no banana**

D U D E

DUDEO MG,,,

UR SO GOOD WTF

THATS MAJESTIC,,,,,,

 

**Bad Cat Doodles**

Thank u so so much!

That was… a hard one to do

A very interesting one, too

Havent done smth this elaborate for fun in a while…

 

**owl no banana**

ooooooo

so do you draw regularly then??

i cuodl tell, ur super good

 

**Bad Cat Doodles**

More than i would like, tbh

hahahah

Im an arts major

 

Bokuto’s heart picked up on his chest. Not particularly because of the newest piece of information — even though the cross that he might have a thing for artistic men crossed his mind — but because love just felt like that, sometimes. Also, Bokuto was a very easily excitable guy. Just talking to Bad Cat guy thrilled him.

 

Upon raising his eyes from his phone, he made eye contact with Kuroo, who was in the kitchen making some sort of food concoction that didn’t smell particularly bad. Kuroo then rolled his eyes and laughed through his nose before going back to whatever he was doing.

  


**owl no banana**

GO GET THAT (ART) EDUCATION BRO

HELL YEA

KLHGSLKGSD

srsly tho

art major sounds so cool!!!!

also hard

what do u guys do in art major??

 

**Bad Cat Doodles**

We cry on our canvases nd draw something based on the shape that it forms

Also watch paint dry

Exciting stuff.

 

Pretty much nothing could render him speechless, but Bokuto stared at his screen in awe for a couple of seconds, unable to tell if bad cat guy was being serious about it or not. It sounded outrageous, but he was so deadpan and serious about it that he could honestly believe him. Thankfully, explanations came shortly after.

 

**Bad Cat Doodles**

Ok we dont… really cry on canvases and draw on top of it

Its a Mood, but not an actual thing

But a teacher has suggested it once, when someone complained abt finals

Watching paint dry is real, tho.

Theres a lot of waiting involved

 

**owl no banana**

OH OK KLGHDDSL

i was worried u rly did that like

klghglskd r u ok?

but since we’re on the subject,,

do u post ur other art somewhere? [eyes emoji]

if u dont mind gjkldshgl

  


Bokuto could hear Kuroo telling him in his mind it was an awful idea to be so straightforward with people, especially towards people you want to date, but Bokuto went for it anyway. It wasn’t like Kuroo’s approach to romance had been working all that well, either, despite Kuroo’s insistence that he was a flirting master. He wasn’t all that slick, therefore, his advices were invalid.

 

Besides, Bokuto is a man of impulse, and nothing could stop him from getting that guy’s number, personal account, carrier pigeon… whatever, not even his own insecurities.

 

And Bad Cat guy didn’t pose resistance, either. He took a while to answer — doing artistic stuff, probably — but when he was back, he quickly linked Bokuto to his personal Twitter account. A small, locked account, using one of his “terrible” selfies from April Fools as an icon and a landscape painting for a header. His bio read:

 

“Akaashi Keiji, 19 y/o. Art/Design major.”

 

There was something so special about getting his personal, locked account, when all he asked was links to his art, but Bokuto couldn’t complain. Would never complain. Getting it, along with a name to the face he had been enamored for a few weeks, was an accomplishment.

 

Especially when it seemed that, despite running a super popular account with tons and tons of followers, Akaashi was pretty shy. His personal account didn’t have a lot of tweets to it, just a few, mostly containing pictures and rants over college work, pictures from Akaashi’s cat (one Bokuto recognized from Bad Cat Doodles) and occasional random thoughts sprinkled in. And he wasn’t a lot more talkative in conversations, either. Most of the time, the one conducting the conversation was Bokuto — which by no means was something strange to him, considering he could probably talk all day and still have weird chatter subjects to bring up — whereas Akaashi would keep up, with direct, short replies. Never unwelcoming, though, it was just his way of communicating. His poetics were reserved to his art.

 

One thing Akaashi definitely was, was unintentionally hilarious. Or intentionally, Bokuto couldn’t really tell. The utter lack of flare in what Akaashi wrote contributed to his deadpan, somewhat cryptic sense of humor, that left Bokuto dumbfounded at times. There were many times when Bokuto wouldn’t have a clue of what Akaashi meant, not knowing whether he should be offended, amused or flattered, but he’d eventually get the hang of it. He had the time and emotional investment to want to learn the ins and outs of how Akaashi spoke, even when he arguably should be paying attention to other things.

 

With time, Bokuto would learn that Akaashi was secretly a memer, which shouldn’t have come as such a big surprise considering he ran the Bad Cat Doodles twitter account — the very cornerstone of millennial humor — , but still. Akaashi sharing a copypasta was so jarring Bokuto only realized what he was reading halfway through the wall of text, getting him a hysterical fit of laughter, one so loud the neighbors slammed their door demanding he got quiet.

 

Over the course of the semester, talking to Akaashi on twitter DMs would become a fixture in his day.

 

Another thing that became a fixture was sending him tons of cat pictures, not only because some of them were pretty funny and deserved to be in Bad Cat Doodles. Bokuto had moved on from that. He certainly still appreciated it with all his heart, but didn’t feel as compelled to do it for that anymore. His new driving force to torment and snap pictures of all cats he saw was how Akaashi genuinely liked them.

 

**owl no banana**

found this good boi on my morning jog!!

[picture]

 

**akaashi kaiju**

Such a good kitten…………

Did u give it some good scratches?

Because it deserves sm

 

**owl no banana**

no i didnt :cccc

i tried

but it was also a shy boi

i’ll get to its heart eventually,,

i see it a lot

 

**akaashi kaiju**

You can do it.. i believe in you

You seem to be good at that

 

“Uhhhhh…” Bokuto scratched his chin, reading that DM over and over. “Bro, c’mere. I’m… confused.”

 

“When _aren’t_ you confused?” Kuroo smirked at him from his spot on the couch.

 

“A lot of times.” not willing to give up and still needing help, Bokuto ran towards him, launching himself to the couch right next to him. Kuroo yelped right in his ear, as expected. Bokuto passed on the opportunity to laugh about it to show him his phone. “Akaashi sent me a text and I don’t know what it means.”

 

“Who the fuck?” Kuroo squinted at the screen, making sense out of what he was seeing, and then wheezed. “Akaashi… _Kaiju?”_

 

“Keiji. It’s a pun.” Bokuto explained, feeling warmth in his heart. The man of his life had great sense of humor, evidently.

 

“Yeah, I figured. Not a lot of people would name their child ‘Giant Monster’. But who the fuck is this?”

 

“Bad Cat Doodles. It’s him.”

 

Bokuto had no business feeling proud over knowing his crush’s name, but he was. Kuroo had riled him up so many times in that past semester about him liking a nameless man on the internet that getting to know Akaashi’s name and rubbing it on Kuroo’s face felt amazing. Kuroo gaped at him like a fish for long seconds before finally recovering.

 

“Wow,” Kuroo started, giving him a slow round of applause. “You’re more persistent than I thought.”

 

“Thanks, bro, it’s always a pleasure to prove you wrong.” Bokuto beamed at him while shaking the phone on his hand. “But I seriously don’t know what he means with this!”

 

“He’s flirting with you, dude,” Kuroo stated matter-of-factly, giving him a sassy hand gesture. “Isn’t that obvious?”

 

“What?!”

 

_“Dude…”_

 

Kuroo tried and tried to convince Bokuto that Akaashi wanted to get in his pants, but something felt wrong about that. Kuroo claimed a lot of stuff that wasn’t true, after all. Bokuto surely _felt_ like he was being flirted with and his cheeks were so hot he could probably grill some steak on his skin but… Thinking too hard about that got him feeling sick to the stomach.

 

The feeling of being flirted with remained, though. So Bokuto decided he could flirt back at times. Or _try_ to flirt back, he meant, since… he wasn’t _good_ at it. He wasn’t absolutely terrible, either, but most of his successful romantic experiences were because other people were better at flirting than he was. At some point, he had to come to terms with that, even though Bokuto found some of his lines absolutely genius. Hopefully, they’d work on Akaashi.

 

And it seemed like it did, to some degree. Most of their conversations was still mostly friendly chatter, meme sharing and pictures Bokuto took of all the cats he could find, with some might-be-flirty conversations here and there. Bokuto wasn’t sure he was getting his point across or if Akaashi was really flirting back, but things didn’t get awkward, so… Maybe it was working. Maybe. _Hopefully._

 

If it was working, though… Bokuto started thinking about how they’d get to meet. He had no real idea of where Akaashi lived, since Akaashi was very reserved about talking about his personal life in social media. Sure, he ranted quite a lot on twitter, commented about some places he had visited and all, but never with specific names. He had nicknames for the people he complained and talked about the most, and the places he’d go to were just vaguely described, to Bokuto’s utter dismay. Akaashi could be living anywhere in the world, as far as he knew, even though he was fairly sure Akaashi was born and studied in Japan at least until middle school, given one of the terrible pictures he posted and doodled on April Fools.

 

But that one time, the stars were aligned in his favor, and Akaashi was also living in Tokyo, as Bokuto found out a few days later, after sending a selfie he took with a cat near Shinjuku station.

 

**akaashi kaiju**

Are you in Tokyo??

 

**owl no banana**

im FROM tokyo, my dude

do u??? know tokyo???

live close??

 

**akaashi kaiju**

I also live here, actually

 

Bokuto had to suppress the urge to start screaming. They were so close all that time, it was surreal. All of a sudden, all the dudes he met in the past few months that looked like Akaashi could’ve been Akaashi, but that would’ve been too much luck. He bounced around on his bed, screaming inside as he gesticulated at the air in the room, but even that woke Buttercup up, earning a dirty look from her. Bokuto would compensate by giving her an awesome petting session, but he had other more important things to do that moment.

 

**owl no banana**

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE

what a small fuckign world

thats so cool tho!!!!!

we should hang out irl sometime!!!!!!!!!

 

**akaashi kaiju**

We should, i’d like it v much

Any place in mind?

 

**owl no banana**

theres this one place i wanna check out

if u dont mind klgdhgdss

ima get the address hold up

 

Was it appropriate to meet your internet crush at McDonalds? Bokuto lived his whole life in Tokyo, but he never committed a lot of the places he visited to his memory, much less their addresses. He probably had been to places a lot more interesting than McDonalds. As he tried his hardest to think about a good place to meet Akaashi — somewhere casual, but not _too casual_ — , Bokuto realized it probably wasn’t a good idea to act like he knew some cool place from the top of his head, but it was too late for that.

 

Then, after a few moments of staring his ceiling, hoping some magic words would appear there like it was Harry Potter or some shit like that, he faintly remembered a passing comment Kuroo made about a new cat cafe he wanted to check out. Again, Bokuto couldn’t remember the name, so if the place he found on Google search was The One, he would never know. He checked the place out, it looked cute, had good reviews and was filled with cats. Akaashi would probably like it. So, he sent him the address, they agreed to meet that friday to get some coffee and Bokuto laid down again, so happy he could barely deal.

 

Midway through their week, though, Akaashi caught him off guard again.  

 

**akaashi kaiju**

So…

Uh.

I hope i didn’t read too much into this, and if i did, im… so sorry

But…

Is this just hanging out or…

A date?

Because i wouldnt mind. If it was a date

 

Was that real life? Or was it fantasy? It didn’t seem real. Bokuto blinked, rubbed his eyes, showed it to Oreo and Buttercup for confirmation. They couldn’t read, but Bokuto saw wisdom in their low blinking. It was happening.

 

**owl no banana**

SURE!!!

i mean,,

if u,,,, want it to be a date glshglsk

it can be a date

do u,,, wnat it to be a date??

 

**akaashi kaiju**

Yeah, actually

 

That wasn’t something Bokuto purposely was lowkey about, but he simply couldn’t be highkey about it, so excited he was rendered speechless. His heart had expanded so much, there was no space left behind for lungs, or for his vocal cords to move. At some point, later that afternoon, Bokuto forced out a scream, that he pretended was his reenacting of his favorite vine. It was wednesday, after all.

 

Not talking about it was the dumbest move he ever did, though, because when the day finally arrived, Bokuto came fresh out of the shower in complete despair. He had no idea how to get there, where it really was, and most important of all, had no idea what to wear. Not only his favorite shirts were all dirty on a corner of the room (including the “check meowt” t-shirt he bought thinking of Akaashi) because he didn’t plan this through, but he couldn’t find a match of clothes that seemed good for a first date, either. Especially with someone as gorgeous as Akaashi. He couldn’t half ass that one.

 

“Bro, you have to help me, for fuck’s sake,” Bokuto kneeled beside Kuroo’s bed and started shaking his arm, trying to wake him up from his nap. “I have a date, Akaashi invited me on a date, _Kuroo, dude, please,_ **_help me!_ **”

 

Bokuto didn’t even need to drag his e’s this time around, because Kuroo’s eyes almost popped out of his skull as soon as his sleepy brain processed what Bokuto had just said.

 

“You’re shitting me,” he said, getting up and supporting his weight on his elbows. Bokuto shook his head and Kuroo’s eyes grew larger. “You’re shitting me! He asked you out?!”

 

“He did! Look!” Bokuto quickly showed him the text with his shaky hand, to which Kuroo stared for long, awful seconds. “I have a date and I don’t know what to wear!”

 

“Oh shit! Alright, okay, I’m gonna help you!”

 

Thank fuck he did. Kuroo might not be the master on flirting he said he was, but he undeniably had more fashion sense in his pinkie than Bokuto had in his entire body. Bokuto would walk around only wearing sports gear if it was socially acceptable. Thankfully, he and Kuroo often go shopping together, so Kuroo knew his whole wardrobe up and down and had no difficulty finding stuff from the pile Bokuto left on the ground after vainly trying to style himself. Kuroo was even kind enough to cover his blemishes with makeup before he went his way, sprinting to the nearest subway station.

 

**owl no banana**

aKAASHI IM OMW

 

His mad rush to get dressed and arrive in time to their meeting spot ultimately failed. When he got there, sweating from pores he didn’t even know existed, Akaashi was already standing next to the cat cafe's door, resting against the wall while looking at his phone, _looking like a god_.

 

How was it possible for someone to look so much better in real life when they already look gorgeous on pictures? Bokuto didn't have a clue. But Akaashi was right there, wearing skinny jeans, a long black t-shirt and the softest look when they finally made eye contact and waved at him.

 

Bokuto remembered thinking _“Don't embarrass yourself in front of him, Koutarou, don't run towards him”_ before his body decided it was sprinting time. At the very least, he managed to stop himself from hugging Akaashi and spinning him around.

 

(The hardest thing he had ever done, really.)

 

“Akaashi!!!” Bokuto knew he didn’t need to call him one more time, but didn’t stop himself when it came out. Pronouncing his name was different than typing it down and he liked the feeling. Hopefully, he’d be saying it more often. “Hey!!”

 

“Hi, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi replied, his voice low and soft, but still a bit breathless, like he had been running too.

 

Bokuto wished he could keep speaking nonstop for the rest of the day, heart picking up on his chest. He knew Akaashi wouldn’t, considering his texting habits, but a man could dream.

 

“Sorry for taking so long! Did you wait too much? I had to-”

 

“No, it’s fine. I got here early.” Akaashi politely shook his head, pocketing his cellphone. “Let’s… go inside. People say this place gets packed real soon.”

 

“Oh, yeah! Let’s go!”

 

Both of them headed for the door, fumbling there for a minute before Akaashi opened the door to let them both in, taking their shoes at the cafe’s genkan and placing it on a numbered shoe rack. Then, after being told the establishment’s rules by the attendant, they were taken to a table with a food menu and a cat treats menu, that included toys and cat snacks. They wouldn’t necessarily need them, since the cats were very sociable, but (of course) the attendant insisted it would be a better experience.

 

The place was nice. Had a good home-y feel to it, plenty of space for humans and cats. There were comfortable rugs to sit on, couches, chairs, cat bridges and scratchers all around. The coffee and baked goods were okay. The cats were delightful, came in all shapes, sizes and personalities, and they approached Bokuto and Akaashi in no time. The more extroverted, playful ones, at least. The oldest and shiest ones needed a bit of bribing to get near, but were pretty cuddly once they were convinced. Solid second best thing about the whole date, because they were exceptionally cute. Bokuto legit felt like taking them all home, especially after knowing that the cats were up for adoption.

 

The number one thing was Akaashi, for sure. Bokuto didn’t even have it in him to disturb him and his cat time with conversations for a long time, content with watching Akaashi interact with the cats like they were good friends already, whispering them compliments and petting all the cats he could reach. At some point, there were 4 cats around him, climbing on his shoulders and laying on his lap. Bokuto didn’t even know who he was jealous of in that situation. Eventually, cats started coming to him as well, interested in his smell and the treats he requested, but his focus was elsewhere. Good thing Akaashi didn’t notice his staring.

 

“Is there a particular reason you wanted to come here with me?” Akaashi asked, momentarily taking his eyes off the gorgeous ragdoll cat sitting on his leg to make eye contact.

 

“I...”

 

Bokuto froze in place, his mind racing with numerous thoughts. _You like cats, and I like you, you look so soft and happy I’m dying inside. I’d die for you and for all these fucking cats. Please, let’s get married._ None of that could ever be said out loud, just the thought making him so much more flustered than he already was, blushing so hard he could easily burn on the spot. He gulped, having no courage to break eye contact, Akaashi blinking as slow and charming as the cats draped on him.

 

“I wanted to learn your memeing ways, obviously,” he finally said, laughing louder than he wished, scratching the back of his head as he looked away.

 

Fuck, that was one of the dumbest things he could’ve said. Akaashi probably hated him for it, was done with the date and his whole existence, would never talk to him again, Bokuto knew. Bokuto felt that so hard that he decided to look his crush in the face for the last time, commit it to his brain and go home to sulk.

 

Akaashi was looking at him, relaxed on the couch, a soft smile gracing his face. Ouch, his heart.

 

“I want copyrights,” he claimed, but nothing about his voice sounded like he wanted to say something else entirely. Didn’t change the fact that it made Bokuto snort.

 

“You can have it all,” _even my heart,_ Bokuto thought, smiling so much his face hurted, clutching his chest.  

 

Akaashi didn’t need to take his heart, really. He already had it for a long time already. And, hopefully, Bokuto would get the chance to steal Akaashi’s heart for himself.

**Author's Note:**

> you can talk to me through [tumblr](http://kenmagoesblep.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/kenmagoesblep)! kudos and comments are very appreciated! good holidays for everyone!


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